Ha Seung-Jin

About

Size:

7’3”

Weight

305

Position

Center

Before The NBA:

Ha Seung-Jin was born on August 4th, 1985 in Seoul, South Korea. For high school, Ha attended Samil Commercial, a school located in the highest populated province in South Korea: Gyeonggi-do. In seven high-school tournament games, Ha averaged 12.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game. After high school, Ha attended Yonsei University, one of the most prestigious colleges in the country. Ha played basketball there for a total of three years before entering the 2004 NBA draft.

NBA Career: Portland Trail Blazers (2004-2006)

After entering the 2004 NBA draft, the Portland Trail Blazers drafted Ha with the 46th overall pick. Ha was not initially played by the Trail Blazers; his debut did not come until January 7th, and he only played a single minute in that game. Ha didn’t get his first rebound until January 19th, and didn’t make his first basket until March 12th. In the first 18 games of his career, he only played in 81 minutes due to the Blazers simply having better big men options.

But then came the last game of the season; April 20th, 2005. Ha Seung-Jin would finally get his opportunity to play, in where he would receive over a fourth of the minutes he had received in every game previous to this. This would be the best game of his career, as he scored 13 points and grabbed 5 rebounds on just seven field goal attempts. Ha had one of the last two field goals for the Trail Blazers in a close game that they pulled out a short 3-point win. Trail Blazers fans loved it.

He finished the season with averages of 1.4 points per game and 0.9 rebounds per game in 19 games played. The Trail Blazers, though his numbers being one of the worst in the league, recognized his young age and understood that he needed to adapt to the American way of basketball. So they did not waive him and played him in the 2005-06 NBA season.

This time, Ha would be given more minutes and would be played in more games. Regardless of this, Seung-Jin was still barely playing, as he only played 27 games and averaged 7.9 minutes per game. There was a four-game stretch in late February, however, in which he was a starter due to injuries, with February 13th, 2006 being the first game he started in his whole career. Despite this, he only shot four field goals this entire stretch (he made all four), and he finished the stretch with averages of 2 points, 3 rebounds, and 0.5 blocks per game. His last game as an NBA player came on April 19th, 2006, in where Seung-Jin would record two rebounds and one steal. He finished the year with averages of 1.6 points per game and 1.8 rebounds per game.

On July 31st, the Portland Trail Blazers traded Ha alongside teammates Steve Blake and Brian Skinner to the Milwaukee Bucks for Jamaal Magloire. He was waived immediately after the deal.

Anaheim Arsenal (2006-2007)

Ha didn’t quite give up on the NBA yet. He signed with the Anaheim Arsenal of the D-League (now known as the G-League), which was the affiliate for the Detroit Pistons of the NBA. He would be given more opportunities to show what he can do, as he would surely get more minutes in the D-League rather than the NBA. In 26 games (16 of them in where he was a starter), Ha Seung-Jin averaged a mediocre 2.7 points per game and 2.8 rebounds per game on an inefficient 41.4 percent from the field. He also racked up 2 fouls per game, which was extremely dysfunctional for a player who was only playing in 12.5 minutes per game. He was later cut by the Arsenal, and it was officially time for him to move on from American basketball.

Most Memorable Moments:

There were two very memorable moments in Seung-Jin’s career. One being his brawl with teammate Nedzad Sinanovic. Keep in mind that Seung-Jin was playing on the Portland Jail Blazers team, the team that had multiple hotheads and had a bad reputation across the league. Anyways, Nedzad Sinanovic made his final free-throw shot, retrieved the basketball after his shot, and held it. Ha snatched the ball from Nedzad’s hands, making Nedzad angry. He muttered something under his breath that Ha heard, which resulted in a brawl to begin. Imagine seeing two men, one 7’3”, and one 7’4”, on the ground wildly swinging elbows and fists. After the fight was broken up by the Blazers staff, Ha was screaming at Nedzad “I’ll sue! I’ll sue!” Both were separated to different areas of the practice facility, so another fight wouldn’t happen and everything would end like that. Except Ha was sent to the team weight room, which ended up causing Ha to pick up a wooden pole that players used to stretch and attacked Sinanovic. While Sinanovic did block one of the shots, a second one hit him in the ribs, before the pole was ripped and thrown across the court.

Though violence isn’t funny itself, imagine two very tall, skinny white guys punching each other on the floor. Luckily though, nothing like this happened before or again during Seung-Jin’s time as a Jail Blazer. In fact, Ha was a very loving player, shown by the time he and teammate Zach Randolph decided to make their own greeting card. While they were rather creepy, it was funny to see a South Korean giant having a greeting card saying “Never Give Up On Your Dreams” and “Thinking Of You”.

After The NBA:

Where is Seung-Jin today? Well, you’d be surprised to know that he still plays basketball. In 2008, Ha decided to return to Korea and play for Jeonju KCC Egis of the KBA. In the 2008-09 season, Seung-Jin won his team the championship and his team won the 130,000,000 (KRW) cash prize. He then won another championship two seasons later, in where this time Seung-Jin was awarded the Finals MVP. He and KCC Egis would come close again in the 2015-16 season but would lose in 6 games to Goyang. Ha Seung-Jin, who is currently 33 years old, still plays for Jeonju KCC Egis to this day.

Fun Facts:

• Ha Seung-Jin is the only Korean basketball player to ever play in the NBA or get drafted.

• Ha Seung-Jin is one of the 9 Asian players to ever play in the NBA, and one of 6 to ever record 10 or more points in a single NBA game.